The Plan of St. Gall a study of the architecture & economy of & life in a paradigmatic Carolingian monastery |
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| MEDIEVAL & PROTOHISTORIC PARALLELS OF THE
HOUSE FOR HORSES AND OXEN |
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 | The Plan of St. Gall |  |
MEDIEVAL & PROTOHISTORIC PARALLELS OF THE
HOUSE FOR HORSES AND OXEN
The House for Horses and Oxen and their Keepers
differs from all the other livestock buildings shown on the
Plan in that the stabling areas for the animals and the
bedrooms of the herdsmen are not arranged peripherally
around a central living room with a fireplace, but rather,
extend outward on the two opposite sides of that room so
as to form a longhouse. This particular layout is a very
ancient one and was used in the Middle Ages for other
purposes as well.
475. LUTTRELL PSALTER (1340). HARROWING
LONDON, BRITISH MUSEUM, ADD. MS. 42130, fol. 171 (detail)
[By courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum]
The harrow is pulled by one horse and led by a man. A slinger following the harrow tries to drive off two crows flying overhead. Harrows with
iron teeth or tines pegged through a wooden frame (and perhaps originally operated with wooden pegs) are among the oldest animal-powered
agricultural tools. They were used to break up clods after the soil was plowed, to level the earth for seeding, and to cover the seed after it was
broadcast. One horse, properly harnessed, as this drawing shows, was able to draw the harrow.
Royal guesthouses of the Consuetudines Farfenses
An interesting guesthouse for royal travelers, bearing
striking resemblance to the House for Horses and Oxen,
is described in the Consuetudines Farfenses[616]
, a literary
master plan for a monastic settlement written around 1043
in the monastery of Farfa in the Sabine mountains, but
now generally believed to record the layout of the monastery
which Abbot Odilo (994-1048) built at Cluny:[617]
Next to the narthex must be built a lodging 135 feet long, 30 feet
wide, for receiving all visiting men who arrive at the monastery
with horsemen. From one part of the dwelling 40 beds have been
prepared, and just as many pillows made of cloth, where only men
sleep, with 40 latrines. In the other part are arranged 30 beds
where countesses or other noblewomen may sleep, with 30 latrines,
476. LUTTRELL PSALTER (1340). PLOWING
LONDON, BRITISH MUSEUM, ADD. MS. 42130, fol. 170 (detail)
[By courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum]
The plow is drawn by two span of yoked oxen guided by one man; another alongside them wields a long whip. The plow itself, with heavy
blade cutting vertically, plowshare at right angles cutting horizontally, and mould board turning the cut slice over to the side, is one of those
great innovations made by the barbarians of the North in the early Middle Ages, and one that changed the course of history. For its primitive
Roman prototype incapable of coping with the heavy alluvial soil of the North, see fig. 262, I, 348. For a superb review of the full economic
and cultural impact of this piece of equipment, see Lynn White, 1963, 44ff.
middle of this lodging should be placed tables like the refectory
tables where both men and women may eat.[618]
The Farfa Consuetudinary describes a guesthouse that is
to be an integral part of the architectural layout of an
eleventh-century monastery. (The mounts and grooms of
the traveling party were to be housed in a separate building.)
The measurements of this building, as listed in this
account, are wholly compatible with the function it was to
perform, as is demonstrated in the reconstruction of its
layout shown in fig. 477, where it is assumed that the
mattresses were ranged side by side at right angles to the
long walls. Laid out in this manner, the two wings of the
building could indeed yield sleeping space for forty men
and thirty ladies, leaving in the center a dining hall 30
feet square. The privies, as the text implies, were separate.
They could not have been arranged in a single line, as that
would have required an outhouse 175 feet long (40 feet
more than the house itself). The proportions are more
reasonable, if we assume that they were arranged in a
double row.[619]
Consuetudines Farfenses, fol. 79r-80r, ed. Albers, Cons. mon. I,
1900, 137-39, and Conant, 1968, 43.
"Juxta galileam constructum debet esse palatium longitudinis Cta
XXXta et Ve pedes, latitudinis XXXta, ad recipiendum omnes supervenientes
homines, qui cum equitibus adventaverint monasterio. Ex una
parte ipsius domus sunt preparata XLta lecta et totidem pulvilli ex pallio,
ubi requiescant viri, tantum, cum latrinis XLta. Ex alia namque parte
ordinati sunt lectuli XXXta ubi comitisse vel aliae honestae mulieres
pausent cum latrinis XXXta ubi solae ipsae suas indigerias procurent. In
medio autem ipsius palatiis affixae sint mense sicuti refectorii tabulae, ubi
aedant tam viri quam mulieres." Consuetudines Farfenses, ed. cit., 138.
Schlosser's reconstruction of this building (Schlosser, 1889, fig. 2)
lacks accuracy of detail. The reconstruction shown in fig. 477 is basically
identical with that which Kenneth John Conant suggested in 1965, 180,
fig. 1, except that instead of attaching the two privies to the end of the
building, I have placed them parallel to its northern long side, as in the
House for Distinguished Guests on the Plan of St. Gall. I am offering
this as an alternative to, not as a substitute for, Prof. Conant's suggestion.
Monks' dormitory in the monastery of
St. Wandrille
There is other, and even earlier, evidence for the use of
a longhouse of this description as sleeping quarters. The
Gesta abbatum Fontanellensium describes a building of this
type erected by Abbot Ansegis (823-833) as a dormitory
for the monks of the monastery of St.-Wandrille (Fontanella):
Moreover these are the buildings, public and private, begun and
completed by him. First of all, he had built the most noble dormitory
for the brothers, 208 feet long and 27 feet wide, the entire
work rising to a height of 64 feet. The walls were built in well-dressed
stone with joints of mortar made of lime and sand; and it
had in its center a solarium, embellished by the very best pavement
and a ceiling overhead that was decorated with the most noble
477. GUEST HOUSE OF CLUNY II (BUILT BY ABBOT ODILO, 994-1048). DIAGRAMMATIC PLAN
The similarity in layout of this house and that for the horses and oxen and their keepers on the Plan of St. Gall (fig. 474) is perplexing. Both
must derive from the same genus of buildings the protohistoric origins of which are attested by the long house of Westlick and the Carolingian or
pre-Carolingian longhouses of Warendorf (fig. 325.B). As on the Plan of St. Gall, the guest house at Cluny was located at the north-west
corner of the monastery church; also see K. J. Conant's plan of Cluny II, fig. 515, p. 335 below.
of glass. Apart from the walls, the entire structure was built with
wood from the heart of oak, and roofed over by tiles held in place
by iron nails. Above, it has tie beams and a ridge.[620]
Again, we are dealing with a building of extremely
elongated shape, with arms reaching out in opposite directions
from a central space whose function differs distinctly
from that of the extended parts. In St.-Wandrille this
central portion served as sunroom (solarium) and therefore
must have been more open than the wings in which the
478.A FONTANELLA (ST.-WANDRILLE) SEINE-MARITIME FRANCE, FOUNDED BY ST. WANDRILLE, 645
SCHEME OF CRITERIA FOR AN INTERPRETIVE STUDY
FONTANELLA (ST.-WANDRILLE)
These studies show in the Carolingian monastery of Fontanella a dormitory that is a
monastic variant of a Germanic long house of very ancient vintage, examples of which
are discussed in this chapter. Our present interpretation, differing from those proposed by
von Schlosser, 1889, Hager, 1901, and in minutiae even from one proposed by Horn
(1973, 46, fig. 47), makes no claim for authenticity in particulars. The design of the
architectural envelope, its fenestration, and its "graceful cloister walks" is an exercise
of imagination. But we feel confident of the interpretation of the disposition of primary
building masses.
The Gesta Abbatum Fontanellensium, written around A.D. 830 and 845,
describes the church of Abbot St. Wandrille, begun in 649 (here translated pending
fuller treatment in a subsequent study):
"The above-said admirable father built in this place a basilica in the name of the
most blessed prince of the Apostles, Peter, in squared stones and having 290 feet in
length and 37 feet in width."
Almost 200 years later Ansegis began construction of the cloister. First to be built was a
new dormitory (see Latin and English text, p. 277). The Gesta describes the erection
of a new refectory and a third structure, the MAIOR DOMUS:
"Thereafter he built another house called the refectory, through the middle of
which he had constructed a masonry wall to divide it so that one part would serve as
refectory, the other as cellar. This building was of precisely the same material and
the same dimensions as the dormitory . . . then he caused to be erected a third
exceptional structure which they called `the larger building'. It turned toward the
east, with one end touching the dormitory, the other adjoining the refectory. He
ordered a supply room to be installed in it, and a warming room, as well as several
other rooms. But because of his premature death this work remained in part
unfinished.
"These three most beautiful buildings are laid out in this manner: the dormitory is
situated with one end turned toward the north, the other toward the south, with its
south end attached to the basilica of St. Peter. The refectory likewise is aligned in
these two directions, and on the south side it almost touches the apse of the basilica
of St. Peter. Then that larger building is placed just as we have said above . . . . The
church of St. Peter lies to the south and faces east . . . ."
The chronicler finished his account by telling us that Ansegis "ordered graceful porches
to be built in front of the dormitory, refectory, and larger house," and that he
added midway along the cloister walk "in front of the dormitory a house for charters"
and "in front of the refectory a building in which to preserve a quantity of books."
On the use of the cloister wing that runs along the flank of the church as a place for
daily chapter meetings, see I, 249ff.
Ansegis's construction of the claustral range
of Fontanella, begun in 823, precedes
Gozbert's reconstruction of the monastery of
St. Gall by only a few years. Like St.
Gall, Fontanella conforms with the claustral
scheme emerging from Aachen in 816-817:
its ranges enclose an open court adjacent to
one flank of the church.
The topography of Fontanella did not allow
Ansegis to place the new cloister on the
south side of the church (as did Gozbert at
St. Gall, in conformity with the Aachen
scheme; cf. below, 327ff) because the old
church of St. Wandrille already stood
against the southern slope of a valley too
steep to permit further construction. But
there was ample space for building on the
flat valley floor north of the church.
In Ansegis's time the Roman supply road
from Rouen ran east of the abbey, and the
unchanneled Seine often flooded the low
valley meadows. These limitations of topography
caused Ansegis to adopt a most unorthodox
order for his claustral buildings—
cellar and refectory to the east; close to
supply routes; dormitory to the west. A
further difference is that in the Aachen
scheme all claustral structures were double-storied
whereas at Fontanella they were not;
hence their inordinate length.
Ansegis's cloister strikingly illustrates the
Carolingian search for a new order in which
a Roman passion for symmetry and monumentality
prevails over loose, casual
assembly of parts. It is furthermore a
testimony to the triumph of Benedictine
monachism over other less ordered forms of
monastic observance, and the role the Benedictine
ideals played in lending new eminence
and vigor to the quest for cultural unity
that pervaded the whole of Carolingian life.
of a large transeptal porch with heavily fenestrated gables.
AEDIFICIA autem publîca ac priuata ab ipso coepta et consummata
haec sunt: Inprimis dormîtorium fratrum nobilissimum construî fecit,
habentem longitudinis pedum CC VIII, latitudinis uero XXVII; porro
omnis eius fabrica porrigitur in altîtudine pedum LXIIII; cuîus muri de
calce fortissimo ac uiscoso arenaque rufa et fossili lapideque tofoso ac probato
constructi sunt. Habet quoque solarium in medio suî, pauimento optimo
decoratum, cui desuper est laquear nobilissime picturis ornatum; continentur
in ipsa domo desuper fenestrae uîtreae, cunctaque eîus fabrica, excepta
macerîa, de materie quercuum durabîlium condita est, tegulaeque ipsius
unîuersae clauis ferreis desuper affixae; habet sursum trabes et deorsum.
Gesta SS. Patrum Font. Coen., Book XIII, chap 5, ed. Lohier and Laporte,
1936, 104-105; ed. Loewenfeld, 1886, 54-55; ed. Schlosser, 1889,
30-31; and idem, 1896, 289, No. 870. For an earlier visual reconstruction
of Ansegis's cloister see Horn 1973, 46, fig. 47.
Protohistoric houses of similar design
I mentioned before that this particular layout was a very
ancient one. Longhouses of comparable design were excavated
by Doppelfeld in a Migration Period settlement on
the Bärhorst, near Nauen, Germany;[621]
by Bänfer, Stieren,
and Klein in a Migration Period settlement at Westick,
near Kamen, Westphalia;[622]
and by Winkelmann, at Warendorf,
near Münster,[623]
in a settlement datable by its pottery
to A.D. 650-800 (fig. 478) This building type spread from
the Continent to England, where it is attested by a
Saxon longhall of the ninth century, excavated in 1960-62
by Philip Rahtz in Cheddar, Somerset (fig. 479)[624]
and
numerous buildings of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
when it became a favorite layout for monastic barns in
the counties of Wiltshire, Gloucester, and Somerset. Figures
480 and 481 are typical examples. The first is a broadside
view of the fourteenth-century barn at Pilton, Somerset,
a dependency of the abbey of Glastonbury; and, the
second, a plan of the fifteenth-century barn of Tisbury,
Wiltshire, one of the outlying granges of the abbesses of
Shaftsbury.[625]
For Pilton, see Andrews, 1901, 30; Cook-Smith, 1960, 30-31,
and figs. 207-210; and Crossley, 1951, fig. 130. For Tisbury, see Andrews
loc. cit.; Dufty, 1947. The roof of the barn of Pilton was destroyed by
fire in 1963 (cf. Horn & Born, 1969, 162).
Reconstruction
In our reconstruction of the House for Horses and Oxen
and Their Keepers (fig. 482A-G), we have emphasized the
function of the domus bubulcorum & equas seruantium as
the living, dining, and cooking area of the herdsmen (and
perhaps an even larger segment of the monastery's serfs
and laymen) by giving to this portion of the building the
form of a large transeptal hall, whose ridge intersects the
ridge of the stables. We have interpreted the bedrooms of
the oxherds and grooms as aisles, attached to the flank of
the stables; the stables themselves, as internally undivided
spaces whose roofs are carried by a continuous set of
coupled rafters of uniform scantling. There are other
478.B AN INTERPRETATION BASED ON THE GESTA ABBATUM FONTANELLENSIUM et alii BY THE AUTHORS
we have introduced four posts, which are not shown on
the Plan; we have assumed them because it appeared
unlikely to us that in a service building of this type the
roof would have rested on beams spanning nearly 40 feet.
| The Plan of St. Gall | |